Iblis: The Flame Within
by Kuro Shiro Sama-Sama
Summary: A one-shot from Iblis' perspective as he reflects on man kind, his own existence as a god and his life while sealed within Princess Elise. This fanfic tries to expand upon and explore Iblis' character by looking at him from a more mythology-based perspective. Also contains some subtle cosmic horror elements


**This is a quick little one shot made for the sake of getting my story count up as well as experimenting with the idea of Iblis being an active persona inside of Elise, but unable to act on his own – effectively leaving him to stew in a teenage girl's brain being a quiet observer.**

 **The only other thing I need to say about Iblis in this little fanfic is that this is my interpretation of what he could've been like should he have been fleshed out as more than a mindless fire monster. This isn't necessarily connected to my other 06 fanfic but if you want to consider them connected you can, but you don't need to read one to understand the other.**

 **This also messes with Iblis in a mythological sense in-universe (as mythology is a love of mine).**

 **If you like it and would want to read more fanfics in this style, please leave a review. I'd also just love the feedback in general because this is my first time messing around with strictly Iblis.**

 **Iblis: The Flame Within**

For centuries I have existed in a state of completeness for I have existed since the first morning of the world and I will continue to exist until the last star falls from the night.

For as long as man has lived on the land now called Soleanna I have been worshiped as the god of the sun with festivals held and sacrifices made in my honor, being called their Flame of Hope.

Although I have adopted the name of Solaris I am the primordial being of fire, ice, shadow and light that knows no bounds and knows no true companion equivalent to itself. To my understanding that is why the people of Soleanna have called me a 'god', and I accept the title while rejecting it as something that is not of my nature.

There were previous times now lost to history that I became incomplete of my own accord – the times where the two halves of my mind keeping me in check would conflict so heavily with one another that I was split into two: one half becoming the being known as Iblis and the other half known as Mephiles.

It was during these times of incompleteness where my current self known as Iblis burnt brightly through kingdoms man has built under the blackened sky. Rampaging through the world I hope to find my other self, my missing half, my equal, my celestial companion since time memorial. And yet while I travel the world to find myself it is man's world that pays the price: I force the kingdoms they've forged into the ground, I return their flesh and blood to nature, I burn their fields into fertilizer and their animals to charred meat. Their rivers boil, their sun blocked by pitch black clouds and the air heavy and filled with musk too dangerous to inhale.

It is only when I find my missing half that I feel complete again, the flames within me become tame, I return to the sky to resume my role as the sun and my other half the moon.

I am complete again.

It was 10 years ago that man decided to change it's mind about their sun god. Man has evolved past years of warring with city-states and putting their flags on villages or indigenous peoples without a name; past the idea of offering food they could've used to feed their families during a famine to appease a 'god' who could not eat or touch their offering and past the idea of killing their own children to appease a 'god' who did not want to see man die.

Observing man for so long made me realize that they were an inconsistent species who often changed rules they made themselves whenever it suited their own needs. And it is because they're such an inconsistent species that I found myself simultaneously loving and hating them with equal passions.

It was during one such bout of man's inconsistency that a duke of Soleanna proposed that should one tame my power, it would provide enough energy to power several nations – for energy is a resource man has become reliant on for their survival. Their ways of getting energy however is unstable so they say. They say it pollutes the air, land and sea. They say it is inefficient in regards to their time and money – the latter another invention by man I find to be inconsistent. They say it's inefficient in regards to their own energy (man's energy being gained from eating other, smaller and powerless beings compared to themselves).

The part of myself that loved man offered to assist in the duke's research while the part of myself that hated man refused.

I was put into a vessel where I was separated and made incomplete with a thick layer of glass keeping me apart from myself. No matter how brightly I burned, no matter how much I froze, no combination of darkness and light could compel the glass to break so I could become whole again.

Numerous experiments attempted to change my form, to harness me into energy for the people. Of course I did not mind. I love man. I want to see these beautiful, mindless creatures thrive on the world I used to burn in order to find myself – told myself that I would not and could not burn down this land because it needed me as much as as I needed it and it's people.

Again, as would happen in history that has long been forgotten by it's archives being burnt or damaged by frost and water I myself grew too inconsistent. I grew conflicted with myself even while forcibly separated from myself and then...

I was back...

I roared and I rampaged. I destroyed the glass and castle containing me and burnt the world asunder. Though man has evolved to flee from dangers such as these so to continue the species and the civilizations they've built, evolution didn't stop me from continuing this horrid game I play with myself: the search for my equal as it hides from me somewhere in the world, begging for it to come back and join me again, being forgiven and becoming whole again while witnessing the world reset itself. It is a process I realize is too dreadful for man to bear. Man does not like the idea of death even if death is temporary. Man does not like the idea of death when it is permanent.

The part of myself that loves man can understand this...

Perhaps that is why this part of myself – the one that loves the abstract creature known as man – that understands why I was sealed away after escaping my glass casket in search of myself and into the casket of flesh and bone that is the last remaining heir to the throne of Soleanna...

As a host she is not entirely disappointing.

10 years ago she was a child. That child has grown into a fine specimen of man kind.

As a monarch she has lived a busy life training to become heir of the throne, to rule over the country that bares part of my name, to appease me when this half of myself needs to be appeased. And despite all of the heart break I have witnessed while within her she had not shed a single tear.

One tear and she knows that I'll end up setting the world ablaze.

I think about her every now and again. I cannot interact with her. I cannot tell her what to do or what to say, my wants go unheard and while I do not mind (for I do not want much) it is inconvenient. I see myself in her eyes every time she looks in a mirror and I wonder how long I may end up being here. For how much longer can she suppress the urge to cry? How much more heartbreak is required to force her to tear up and finally let all of these feelings out?

I think we're a lot alike even though I cannot express it to her. We are both volcanoes boiling to the brim with magma that are due to erupt and yet we do not. My eruption is reliant on her tears. Her eruption: I do not yet know what will cause it. But I am certain that one day the time will come when she will be forced to cry. When she is forced to cry I will escape this vessel and be unleashed upon the world. When I am unleashed upon the world I will search for myself yet again and once I am united I will return to my place as the sun.

But as man does not like death she forces herself to keep it locked away and even I cannot access her raw human emotions. I am witness to all of them and yet I cannot touch them. I crave them... Such raw anger and sadness... I love man too much to see them suffer and yet all I cause is their suffering while trying to give them prosperity.

I am born into this world with only myself to blame, coming into existence for the sake of existing alongside man. After giving them prosperity and life as their sun, the inevitable reset of the world as I burn everything back to black is the inevitable climax of our relationship that even I cannot avoid. It is to this end I feel the need to mourn for man and even I cannot make my vessel cry...

I may have been able to bring her to the verge of tears a few times in the past but I did not trigger it willingly. I could not will her to cry from within her. It was something she did on her own and had the strength to resist giving into what makes her human.

Is it a sin?

Is it a virtue?

For someone such as myself to love man as I do despite the pain I must cause them with every pleasure, is it right, wrong, something in between? Is this a curse or a blessing that I live inside of this girl's body both hoping and fearing the day she breaks down and waters the earth beneath her with a single tear of salt and regret?

If I were to exist in a physical body alongside her would things be so bad? If I could keep myself tame and without conflict would I be of assistance to man and to the kingdom forged in hellfire? I ponder this and that and I cannot answer these questions myself... The part of myself that would've been able to has been lost for 10 years and I cannot sense them anymore. I cannot feel them anymore. I have been separated from myself for so long I can only assume that part of myself is dead leaving only the human coffin I'm sealed away in for company – a one-sided love even then...

I am Iblis: the flame within, eternally seeking the life and light of hope.

 **Story End**

 **Hope you enjoyed me messing around with Iblis in a true mythological sense.**


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